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"Nice price"

"Long lasting"

"Nice packaging"

"Easy to apply"

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None

A full days wear of mascara without any smudging or flaking

As a big fan of the Maybelline mascara, I never really experiment with other brands when I need to change but just swap and change between the Maybelline items. This time I decided to try the Volume Express Colossal in black. At full price this item is normally £7.99, but it was on offer in Boots for 2 for £7 so I picked up a foundation as well. The Colossal is packed in a bright yellow tube, in a simple plastic packaging. The mascara tube itself is Maybellines standard bullet shape tube with a screw off lid at one end. The brush itself is pretty standard but nice and strong and easy to hold.

The Colossal is enriched with matte shadow pigment that claims to plump up lashes and give a wide eye, big lash look. You apply as normal so there is no technique needed. The brush applies the mascara well and evenly over lashes without any clumps or any flaking. The mascara is not too thick, but also not runny. It is a good consistency that sticks well to lashes and makes them instantly look fuller and more defined and separates each lash. The rich pigment also does make help if you are looking for a smoky eye look with complimenting eyeshadow.

The mascaras lasts well, and if applied in the morning is still in place by bedtime. You do not get any smudging or flaking throughout the day. It removes easily with eye make up remover or facial wipes without the need to rub etc.

I would buy this masacara again

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A great product from Maybelline

I tried this mascara on a whim last year as it was on offer and I generally find Maybelline to be a good quality brand. There are several versions of this mascara - cats eye, smokey eye, waterproof and colossal. I've tried them all and this review is of my favourite (and the one I'm using right now) which is the Volum' Express Colossal. This mascara costs £7.19 at Boots but can often be bougt as part of various offers.

The mascara is standard in that you screw the lid off to reveal the wand. The packaging is a bright yellow so easy to spot in your makeup bag! The tube is a good thick size and easy to hold and use.

The wand is medium thickness and tapers towards the end. It's very basic and standard but I like that in a wand, I've tried ones with funky twists and turns and curves and I find that a basic no frills wand works best for me. This wand doesn't really go to a sharp point, so if you like a point to get those shorter eyelashes around the inner eye you might want to think twice about this. The bristles are quite soft and seem to be a sort of material and no plastic. I like this as I feel it's probably kinder to lashes.

The tube I have is 100% black and it's a really dark black colour. Apparently you're supposed to apply mascara in a zigzag motion along the eyelashes. I have a confession - I blink into my mascara! I only realised it the other week but I hold the wand steady and close my eye slowly into the brush to apply mascara. Now I think about it, it's a bit weird but it works for me!

This mascara coats your lashes with mascara very easily and one coat is more than adequate. I find that this mascara creates very long, thin lashes. I'm quite lucky in that my lashes are long anyway, but I can tell the difference in this mascara compared to others. My sister and a friend have also used this mascara, I know this because I asked them as their lashes looked so long and thin and I was wondering what brand they were using! Personally, I use one coat of this mascara and then a coat of Rimmel to build the lashes up and make them a bit thicker for a bolder look for my day to day makeup, but if I wanted a casual makeup look I'd be happy to use one or two coats of this.

Removal is easy - I use a No. 7 cleanser but I've used cheaper cleansers and wipes and the mascara comes off easily. I do find I need a few cotton wool pads due to the mascara being so black but I feel this is a small price to pay to have fabulous lashes all day!

This mascara isn't waterproof, although there is a waterproof one in the range. I tend to get quite watery eyes in the cold, I find if they're really bad that it can make my lases a bit shorter, but generally the mascara can withstand a bit of moisture and still stay on fine.

Overall this mascara is a great price and a lovely day to day product. It makes lashes ver long and thin and is a very natural looking product. I wouldn't wear it on a night out but it's great for a day at the office!

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A great affordable mascara.

I have been using this mascara for a number of years now, since it first came onto the market a while ago. I am a massive fan of maybelline mascaras as I think they offer value for money in a market crowded with mascaras which are more money than they are worth.

This mascara comes in a lovely elliptical shaped yellow plastic tube and has shiny orange letters, leopard spots and a band around the lid. The tube operates exactly as you would hope and the design overall is functional and eye catching. I often find myself reaching for this mascara purely because the colour and design are so bright and so it often grabs my attention over the others.

The mascara fluid is a lovely dark black and is relatively fluid and wet which means you get good coverage and lashes that dry hard so that the mascara lasts longer and your lashes don't feel sticky. The only thing you have to watch out for is that when you first apply the mascara it is quite wet so it can be a little bit messy.

The mascara brush is curved slightly to fit the contour of your lash line and make for easy application. The brush is narrow and made from bristles which I personally prefer to plastic combs. The mascara brush is easy to manoeuvre across all your eyelashes, even reaching the smaller lashes in the corners of your eyes. The coverage is nice and your lashes are lengthened and certainly look very feline.

The only thing I think this mascara is missing is that it doesn't tend to do much for the volume of your lashes. That said, I have never found a mascara yet that covers all of the different things you would want one to do. So actually I do think this is rather a good mascara too own for separating your lashes and giving some dramatic length to them.

This mascara retails at around £5.99 which is the cheaper end of what is out there on the market. Personally I think this is far better than a lot of other mascaras I have used and it is one I have continued to buy, which is the ultimate compliment as I own at least 25 mascaras at any one time and rarely re-purchase the same one.

Overall, this is a great staple mascara to have in your make up collection.

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A so-so mascara

Maybelline is not a brand that I would usually go to in order to purchase mascara as I have found really great mascaras from L'Oreal, however, I received this one in a goody set at Christmas so wasn't going to let it go to waste.

**What it promises**

"Discover the new colossal cat eyes mascara from volum' express for wide eyed volume. The new flare brush stylises lashes for a full fan of wild volume- it's savagely sexy! Flare out lashes for a bold cat eye look. Collagen enriched formula for colossal feline volume and no clumps."

**Design**

The mascara packaging itself is bright yellow which makes it easy to distinguish and find in my makeup bag.

Personally I have found that the handle is quite small and found it difficult to use at first as I could not get a good grip of it. After a couple of attempts though I soon got the hang of it.

As the brush comes out all of the excess mascara is wiped away easily. The brush is slightly curved and made of soft bristles.

**My experience**

I am not a huge fan of curved brushed with mascara as I can never get the look that I like but I persevered.

The brush glides easily through my lashes to coat them with a nice, even amount of mascara which is a lovely deep black.

Despite the brush being curved my lashes do not seem any more curled than if I were using normal mascara. However, the curl does have a nice effect and my lashes are fanned out and do not clump together.

Being from the Volum' express collection which promises colossal lashes you can understand why I was expected big volume lashes from this product. Unfortunately this did not deliver. Yes my lashes are lovely and curled but the volume is hardly anything to shout about.

I can wear this mascara all day with no smudging and it comes off easily at the end of the day with makeup remover.

**Price**

You can find this mascara for upwards of £4.99 both online and in various stores.

**Conclusion**

This is a nice mascara but it's not excellent. I will continue using it as it was a gift but when it is gone I will be returning to my L'Oreal Voluminous mascara. I would perhaps buy it again if it was really cheap on offer but it just did not live up to its extravagant claims. 3 stars from me.

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Unleash Your Feline Side!

Having tried pretty much every mascara on the market today (I would guess since I own so many!) I know exactly what I'm looking for when it comes to this kind of product and I don't often get taken in by the latest gimmick. Ive often found the mascaras that claim to offer something REALLY new and different - opposed to the standard length and volume you hope for - don't tend to work so I don't get swayed easily by those kind of claims. However that changed when I saw this particular product hit the shelves 'Maybelline Volum' Express Cat Eyes Mascara' I had to have it for 2 reasons - 1. I'm a big fan of the whole flicked, cat eye look anyway so anything to help me create that is welcomed and 2. I really liked the leopard print packaging - awful reason to buy something I know. But it seems my first impressions weren't wrong because I absolutely adored this mascara from the minute I used it and have continued with it ever since, I guess sometimes gimmicks can work!!

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Useful Information:Price: I paid around £8 for this mascara.Stockists: I personally bought mine from Boots but Ive also seen it in Superdrug & online from Amazon so its not a hard one to find.Shades: As far as I can tell from buying experience this is only available in Black.Other Info: This mascara claims to have a collagen formula combined with a curved 'claw shape' brush for extending the look of your lashes - particularly the ones in the corners for a really long, fanned out 'cat eye' look.

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Packaging:

As I already admitted the packaging was one of the main reasons I was drawn to this mascara in the first place - having somewhat of leopard print fetish I'm sure you'll understand the lapse! This mascara comes in a bright yellow, cone shaped tube and contains 9.5ml of the mascara. Bu the vest thing about it for me was on the tube is some leopard print in a striking gold colour making sure it really stands out - the rest of the information on the tube is also that colour as well making it a lot easier to read. All the information on this is printed on the back of the tube - shelf life (6M) and claims but sadly not much else. Now that doesn't bother me as I don't really need a long winded ingredient list but if anyone has allergies to things sometimes used to make mascara then it will be a downside - also there isn't an address or website to find extra information out from either, again that's not an issue for me but for others it might be. Like a standard mascara the top of the tub simply twists away to reveal the applicator brush tucked away on the inside - seems very secure to me, haven't had any problems with my tubes drying out quickly or anything like that so practical and a really nice design for me. But for people who need ingredients either keep away or attempt to find a list online first.

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The Brush:

Anyone who has read a mascara review of mine in the past will know how much I hate companies who claim to have a new fancy shaped mascara brush because Ive found they don't work in most cases and simply don't deliver on the wild claims, however this one has made me change my mind ... never thought Id write that! As promised the brush is slightly curved but I found it was just the right shape to fit the shape of my natural lashes very well from root to tip and all the way across. None of the messy business I normally have when using curved brushes in fact I found applying this a lot easier and a lot quicker than usual - when I'm using a straight, standard brush. There's none of that trying desperately to reach the little corner lashes without leaving a splodge of mascara on your eyelid because this one gets them without even trying as they fit the natural lash shape so well. This has definitely made me think twice about different shaped brushes - sometimes they do work, and in this case make the job a whole lot easier!

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The Mascara:

Seems like a bit of a strange section but I like to know a few things when it comes to the actual product before Ive used it - and not just what it looks like on. The consistency is a big factor I look for as often Ive found brands cant seem to get that just right texture between thick enough to make your lashes look thick and bold but thin enough so it doesn't dry out quickly and isn't a pain to apply. This one I'm happy to say is perfect for me a good amount comes out on the brush each time I come to apply and its thick enough to make a bold statement but not so thick my eyes feel weighed down - just what I was looking for. One small niggle which I find strange is this stuff has a very strange, almost chemical scent to it (very different to other mascaras in my opinion) luckily however the smell disappears when you apply it (Ive never been able to smell it anyway) and doesn't irritate my eyes or anything like that - again not a massive issue for me but people with skin that's sensitive to fragrance might want to watch out for that. Overall the mascara itself Ive been very impressed with - its exactly what I was looking for.

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The Finished Look:

If someone could have tailor made me a mascara to fit in with my look I don't think they could have done a better job than this. Without mascara I have quite small and light lashes and the difference this makes to them is amazing - I have very thick and bold, statement lashes but with a LOT of length as well - without them looking over the top or the dreaded clumpiness that thick lashes sometimes creates. Ive had so many comments when wearing this from people asking me if I'm wearing false lashes so the difference for me without mascara and with is shocking. I think this is suitable for day and night wear as one coat will just open up your eyes a little with the thickness and length and then add a few coats for nighttime and it helps create a really bold look - particularly when teamed with some liquid eyeliner. Do I look like a cat? Probably not in all fairness but that's not why I bought this (I do the flicks with my eyeliner everyday anyway) but that's not why I bought this - I just wanted a mascara to team with my normal liquid liner look for a sometimes more dramatic effect and this has certainly delivered. I love this one and none of my little niggles about the dodgy smell would put me off using, buying and recommending this to others - so get out and buy yourself a tube!!

- As a quick footnote Ive also found this mascara to be very longlasting when your wearing it - no flakes or clumps as yet and its also very easy to remove with a quick swipe of eye make-up remover and all trace is gone, so no scrubbing your eyes red raw before bedtime with this one!

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Brilliant mascara for the price

I usually buy more expensive mascara, but I had this as a present so thought I'd give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it is.

DESCRIPTION: The most colossal lashes in just one coat.* Lush collagen-enriched plumping formula and Mega Brush instantly build 9X volume, without clumps* Contact lens safe and ophthalmologist-tested* Washable, also available in Waterproof formula

DIRECTIONS:Sweep brush from root to tip to plump lashes and achieve dramatic volume. Do not let dry between coats. Removes easily with soap and water or eye make up remover.

PRICE: You can get this on the high street for around £7, or slightly cheaper online.

PACKAGING: It comes in a bright yellow and metallic colour scheme, which is really handy as it stands out amongst the blacks and greys of my make up bag!

This product claims to add up to 9x more volume instantly. I'm not sure about 9x but it did definitely add a lot more volume. My eyelashes are thin and short, so I need a decent mascara to make them stand out. I usually spend at least £15 on mascara, so I wasn't expecting big things from this one. In the past cheaper mascaras have worn off quickly, clumped my eyelashes together or left black rings under my eyes. This does none of those things.

For the price I was really happy with this mascara. It's long lasting and makes my eyelashes look both thicker and longer. It's easy to apply and doesn't clump. I have been using mine pretty much every day for 4 months and am still continuing to use it. So it's well worth it. I will be using this from now on - and saving myself a bit of money in the process!

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A lash enhancing mascara which frames the eyes nicely for day wear

Mascara is probably one of the main items of make up that I couldn't live without (with the addition of my beloved Touch Eclat!!) and I do like to experiment with different ones. As I am also a very big fan of cats, I couldn't help but get a little excited when I laid eyes on the Collosal Cat Eyes Volume Express Mascara by Maybelline.

What does the product do? The product promises to give you seven times your natural volume on your eyelashes which sounded good to me. It claims that it will make your lashes look fierce and that it will help flick them out giving you the ultimate cats eyes. It uses collagen to make the lashes look fuller and more beautiful.

How do you use the product?The product should be applied in the usual way. You should apply the product to clean lashes and then beginning at the roots, you should move the brush in a zig zag motion along the lashes.

Packaging and PriceThe product comes in a bright yellow chunky tube which is easy to grip. It has a tiger print on the lid of the product and a brush which is supposed to be like a claw but is in fact just slightly curved on the end. The product costs around £7 and it can be bought from department stores like Boots, large supermarkets and also from a variety of online websites.

Application and PerformanceThe bristles of the brush are soft and fairly bendy so you don't need to apply much pressure when using the product. The mascara is very present and quite liquidy so you feel like you're getting a good coverage. the colour of the product is a dark black which I like as it does have an intensity and it frames your eyes well. The product does enhance your lashes and builds the length a bit and also the volume but it isn't a massive difference. I definitely wouldn't say it was seven times thicker!! It does make my eyes look prettier however and I would say that this mascara suits me better for the day time rather than a night out on the town. The mascara is long lasting and it doesn't flake away and land beneath my eyes, making me look tired as some other mascaras have. When it comes to the time for the mascara to be removed, it is easily removed using my usual eye make up remover. The product doesn't irritate my eyes and it doesn't cause me to feel any discomfort, even when I am wearing my contact lenses.

Conclusion This is a good mascara that gives you an enhancement of what you have but that isn't quite as collosal as the name would suggest! It is good for day time wear, long lasting and makes your eyes look prettier. The colour is nice and dark, and the product is easy to apply. I will happily continue to use the product but I probably won't be repurchasing the mascara as I've used ones that thicken and lengthen the lashes much more.

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Good product, but not heaps better than any other mascara on the market

It's a rainy day. My old mascara is effectively, on my chin. I grab the first mascara near the till point and get out the door as fast as I can. And it's the bright yellow and bronze tube with the smattering of leopard print around the cap that I take home.

Unlike a lot of Maybelline mascaras, this one contains a narrow, slender wand, curved in design to ensure it catches the lashes at the edge of the eye. And again unlike other mascaras of the same brands it's easy to use. The formula is an appropriate consistency, and the brush traditional bristles as opposed to the plastic comb style. The size of the brush makes it simple to coat lashes and get a great finish without catching the lid and other eye makeup.

While it gives a long lash and excellent cat eye effect, it's not quite as good as the advertisements claim. It does create a 'colossal cat eye' look, but it's difficult to achieve without false lashes. In an attempt to recreate the image of the full, luxurious lashes, I applied several coats, and this resulted in my lashes becoming stringy and quite brittle.

I would purchase this product again, but would not recommend to anyone who was expecting miracles.

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An excellent mascara for a sexy look, and under £10!

Having tried many mascaras in my life time and having been recently very disappointed by some other recent purchases I decided to try this Maybelline 'Cat Eyes' mascara. I have always liked Myabelline's mascaras and it was on offer in a 3 for 2 on all maybelline cosmetics so I bought it along with some eyeshadow and got a free nail polish. It retails at around £8.99 in most major chemists and supermarkets, but keep an eye out for special offers!

The packaging is striking, it has a lot of information on the back of the cardboard, stating it is hypo-allergenic and suitable for contact lens wearers, which is not always the case with some 'dramatic' mascaras as they can contain fibres that can be really irritating if you wear contacts and one gets in your eye! I have worn tis with contact lenses and had no problems.

The actual mascara tube itself is a striking yellow and has a 'wild cat' print on it which is cute and adds to the feline feel. The Mascara is easy to use, some have found the curved brush tricky but I like it as it allows you to get to the roots of the lashes easily which makes them look thicker. It goes on easily and you can build it up for a more dramatic look with extra coats and it doesn't flake and it lasts a long time.

It really made my lashes stand out, they looked longer, thicker and darker. I have worn this alone or combined with other eye make up and it looks great either way; it even looks good if you can't be bothered to curl your lashes beforehand; though curling them will give an even more dramatic look.

It is easy to remove, but if you have layered it on it might take a bit longer to get off but it doesn't drag or flake off.

I have given this 4 stars as while it is a great mascara it's not especially 'cat eyed' and the volumising effect is not as dramatic as it could be (or it is claimed to be!), but over all I would recommend this as it is an excellent mascara and is equal to , if not better, than many more expensive rivals!

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My first impression was good. I liked the curved brush as not only did this effectively spread out my lashes evenly but made it much easier to apply. I have never had problem with clumps with this particular brand which has always been a huge issue with those mascaras that are considerably cheaper than these. It is the longest lasting brand I have used and rarely need to re apply unless on my bottom eye lashes.

Though it spreads the lashes very well, its not he thickest you can get them. Its certainly gives them an elongated look but for nights out I would go for a different mascara as its not very think at all. I sometimes use this brush first and then change to the waterproof for added thickness

The price is around £6 which in my opinion is great as its fantastic quality so if you are looking for something decent but don't mind too much about how much is costs then go with this one. You will not regret it.